CODEN – according to ASTM standard E250 – is a six character, alphanumeric bibliographic code, that provides concise, unique and unambiguous identification of the titles of serials and non-serial publications from all subject areas.

CODEN became particularly common in the scientific community as a citation system for periodicals cited in technical- as well in chemistry-related publications and as a search tool in many bibliographic catalogues.

[edit] History

The CODEN, designed by Charles Bishop (Chronic Disease Research Institute at the University of Buffalo, State University of New York, retired), was initially thought as a memory aid for the publications in his reference collection. Bishop took initial letters of words from serial titles thereby using a code, which helped him arranging the collected publications. In 1953 he published his documentation system, originally designed as a four digit CODEN system; volume and page numbers have been added, in order to cite and locate exactly an article in a magazine. Later, a variation was published 1957.

After Bishop had assigned about 4,000 CODEN, the four digit CODEN system was further developed since 1961 by Dr. Kuentzel at the American Society for Testing of Material (ASTM). He also introduced the fifth digit to CODEN. In the beginning of the computer age the CODEN was thought as a machine-readable identification system for serials. In several updates since 1963, CODEN were registered and published in the CODEN for Periodical Titles by ASTM, counting to about 128,000 at the end of 1974.

Although it was soon recognized in 1966 that a five digit CODEN would not be sufficient to provide all future serial titles with CODEN, it was still defined as a five digits code as given in ASTM standard E250 until 1972. Within the year 1976 the ASTM standard E250-76 defined a six-digit CODEN.

With beginning of the year 1975 the CODEN system was within the responsibility of the American Chemical Society.

Today, the first four digits of the six-digit CODEN are taken from the initial letters of the words from a serial title, followed by a fifth letter, which consists of the first six letters (A-F) of the alphabet, the latter indicating from which grid the CODEN was taken. The sixth and last digit of the CODEN is a machine calculated check digit of the preceding digits, which is either numerically (2-9) or alphabetically (A-Z). CODEN always uses capital letters.

In contrast to a serial CODEN, the first two digits of a CODEN assigned to a non-serial publication (e.g. conference proceedings) are occupied with arabic numerals each. The third and fourth digit again is occupied with a letter. The fifth and sixth digit corresponds to the serial CODEN, but differs from that the fifth digit is taken from all letters of the alphabet.

In 1975 the International CODEN Service located at Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) became responsible for further development of the CODEN. The CODEN is automatically assigned to all publications referred on CAS. On request of publishers the International CODEN Service also assigns CODEN for non chemistry-related publications. For this reason CODEN may also be found in other data bases (e.g. RTECS, or BIOSIS), and are assigned also to serials or magazines, which are not referred in CAS.

[edit] Current Sources

CODEN assigned till 1966 can be looked up at the two-volume CODEN for periodical titles issued by L.E. Kuentzel. CODEN assigned till 1974 were published by J.G. Blumenthal. CODEN assigned till 1998 and their disintegration can be found at the International CODEN Directory (ISSN 0364-3670), which was published since 1980 as a microfiches issue.

Finding a current CODEN is best done with CASSI (Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index) as printed serial issue (ISSN 0738-6222, CODEN CASSE2) or as Collective Index (0001-0634, CODEN CASSI6), if one already knows the publication title, or by search done in the CD-ROM issue (ISSN 1081-1990, CODEN CACDFE). CASSI not only registers CODEN, but also the correct abbreviation title of a publication and the assigned ISSN. In addition, CASSI can be used to identify publishers and locate library holdings of publications. The holding section in CASSI only includes information on holdings from ca. 350 major resource libraries around the world prior to 1998 and according to CAS will not be updated anymore.

[edit] Examples

• To the journal Nature the CODEN »NATUAS« is assigned.
• To Technology Review the CODEN »TEREAU« is assigned.
• The Proceedings of the International Conference on Food Factors, Chemistry and Cancer Prevention (ISBN 4-431-70196-6) uses the CODEN »66HYAL«.
• To Recent Advances in Natural Products Research, 3rd International Symposium on Recent Advances in Natural Products Research the CODEN »69ACLK« is assigned.
• US patent applications use CODEN »USXXDP«.
• German patent applications use CODEN »GWXXBX«.

[edit] See also

• ISSN
• ISBN
• Library of Congress Control Number

[edit] External links

• Search for CODEN at CAS. CODEN search is restricted to actively referred serials on CAS for preceding 10 years.

[edit] References

• Bishop, Charles: "An integrated approach to the documentation problem". In: American Documentation (ISSN 0096-946X, CODEN AMDOA7), Vol. 4, p. 54-65 (1953).
• Bishop, Charles: "Use of the CODEN system by the individual research scientist". In: American Documentation (ISSN 0096-946X, CODEN AMDOA7), Vol. 8, p. 221-226 (1957).
• Kuentzel, L. E.: "Current status of the CODEN Project". In: Special Libraries (ISSN 0038-6723), Vol. 57, p. 404-406 (1966).
• Kuentzel, L. E.: "CODEN for periodical titles, Vol. 1 ; Periodical titles by CODEN, non-periodical titles, deleted CODEN". In: ASTM data series publication, American Society for Testing and Materials (ISSN 0066-0531); Vol. 23 A (1966).
• Kuentzel, L. E.: "CODEN for periodical titles, Vol. 2 ; Periodical titles by title". In: ASTM data series publication, American Society for Testing and Materials (ISSN 0066-0531); Vol. 23 A (1966).
• Hammer, Donald P.: "A review of the ASTM CODEN for Periodical Titles". Library Resources & Technical Services (ISSN 0024-2527), Vol. 12, p. 359-365 (1968).
• Saxl, Lea: "Some thoughts about CODEN". In: Special Libraries (ISSN 0038-6723), Vol. 59, p. 279-280 (1968).
• Pflueger, Magaret: "A vote for CODEN". In: Special Libraries (ISSN 0038-6723), Vol. 60, p. 173 (1969).
• Blumenthal, Jennifer G. (ed.): "CODEN for periodical titles, Part 1 ; Periodical titles arranged CODEN". In: ASTM data series publication, American Society for Testing and Materials (ISSN 0066-0531); Vol. 23 B (1970).
• Blumenthal, Jennifer G. (ed.): "CODEN for periodical titles, Part 2 ; Periodical titles arranged alphabetically by title". In: ASTM data series publication, American Society for Testing and Materials (ISSN 0066-0531); Vol. 23 B (1970).
• Blumenthal, Jennifer G. (ed.): "CODEN for periodical titles ; Suppl. 1". In: ASTM data series publication, American Society for Testing and Materials (ISSN 0066-0531); Vol. 23 B (1972).
• Blumenthal, Jennifer G. (ed.): "CODEN for periodical titles ; Suppl. 2". In: ASTM data series publication, American Society for Testing and Materials (ISSN 0066-0531); Vol. 23 B (1974).
• ASTM Standard E 250-72: Standard recommended practice for use of CODEN for Periodical Title Abbreviations. Philadelphia. ASTM, 1972.
• ASTM Standard E 250-76: Standard recommended practice for use of CODEN for Periodical Title Abbreviations. Philadelphia. ASTM, 1976.
• Anon: "Chemical Abstract Service assumes ASTM CODEN assignment". In: Journal of Library Automation (ISSN 0022-2240), Vol. 8, p. 12 (1975).
• Groot, Elizabeth H.: "Unique identifiers for serials: an annotated, comprehensive bibliography". In: The Serials Librarian (ISSN 0361-526X, CODEN SELID4), Vol. 1 (no. 1), p. 51-75 (1976).
• Groot, Elizabeth H.: "Unique identifiers for serials: 1977 update". In: The Serials Librarian (ISSN 0361-526X, CODEN SELID4), Vol. 2 (no. 3), p. 247–255 (1978).